The Power of Change

Ten Years Retrospect and Prospect of Taiwan Environmental Education Act (TEEA)

Environmental Protection Administration (EPA), Executive Yuan

Taiwan passed the Environmental Education Act in 2010 and has officially implemented it since June 5 2011, making Taiwan one of the few countries in the world that promote environmental education through legislation. The main authority of Taiwan’s Environmental Education Act is the EPA of the Executive Yuan. Through legislation, the promotion of the TEEA encourages public participation by perfecting the environmental education implementation system, enriching funds, and applying for professional certification. It also strengthens the depth and breadth of environmental education. At the same time, achieving specialization, diversification, popularization, and innovation are important milestones in the development of environmental education in Taiwan.

Up until 2021, the TEEA has been promoted for ten years. It is recognized by non-governmental organizations, schools, individuals, and the government. Many effective practical actions can also be seen. Hopefully, by examining the past, we will take giant leaps towards the next decade.

1. 1、Four Ways of Promoting the Environmental Education in Taiwan
2. Public participation and lifelong learning are important spirits of environmental education. Therefore, Taiwan’s environmental education has established a strategic framework based on schools, society, enterprises, and government agencies.
3. (1) Schools

The formal education of environmental education includes students from preschools, elementary schools, universities, and teacher training. Multiple promotion methods combined with school education are important foundations of environmental education promotion. Taiwan has incorporated environmental education into one of the professional fields of school curricula. In the new syllabus announced by the Ministry of Education (MOE), the spirit of self-directed learning and application in life has been implemented in the promotion of environmental education. For example, the Ministry of Education Green School is used as a platform for sharing textbooks and lesson plans regarding environmental education. At the same time, various incentive measures have been announced, and environmental education has been included in the Twelve-Year Basic Education Curriculum Guidelines, which has become an important issue in learning. Additionally, in response to the United Nations (UN) Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), the New-generation Environmental Education Development (NEED) learning roadmap was proposed, which aims to achieve the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by improving teachers and students’ literacy in the new generation of environmental education.

2. (2) Society

The promotion of the implementation of environmental education in society includes three parts: environmental festivals, community-based education, and environmental volunteers.
The community is the most fundamental unit in government governance. In order to promote community environmental education, the EPA has set up a Community Environmental Protection Action Network, and through the Environmental Community  Transformation, it encourages residents of the community to voluntarily discover environmental problems, propose solutions, implement environmental reforms, deepen the awareness of environmental protection in the community, and gradually promote environmental education. Follow-up cooperation with the educationally significant Environmental Protection Classroom Program encourages and guides community members to play an important role as an environmental education promoter.

Environmental protection volunteers are an important driving force that is indispensable for promoting environmental education in the community. There are seven types of environmental protection volunteers: environmental education volunteers, river patrol volunteers, recycling volunteers, energy conservation and carbon reduction volunteers, green living and consumption volunteers, environmental greening volunteers, and environmental cleaning volunteers. There are currently 3,940 teams in Taiwan with a total of 193,826 people. Environmental protection volunteers are a major support force for the promotion of environmental education among the public.
In addition, in order to expand the participation of the general public, the EPA combined with international environmental festivals to enhance the effects of promotion, involving enterprises, communities, social groups, and all citizens to participate in environmental education. All ministries and committees are invited to incorporate environmental festivals into their activities according to their duties, including Earth Day, World Environment Day, International Day for Biological Diversity, and other activities. For example, the Council of Agriculture (COA), Executive Yuan used Arbor Day and International Day of Forests to combine enterprises and communities to handle tree planting and sapling donation activities. On Earth Day, the Ministry of Economic Affairs was invited to jointly respond to the activity of turning off lights for one hour across Taiwan.

3. (3) Enterprises

The environmental education in enterprises combines social responsibility, workplace education, and environmental management for joint promotion.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is an important trend and indicator of the sustainable business operations today. It means that other than pursuing profits, companies must also take into account the rights and interests of other stakeholders. Environmental protection is one of the social responsibilities that corporations should fulfill. Taiwan promotes the audition among private enterprises in the National Enterprise Environmental Protection Award and the National Environmental Education Award, encouraging companies to start from environmental policies, pollution prevention, resource conservation, and environmental participation, so as to enforce environmental protection and even go out of their offices to take care of communities, establish partnership, and invest in environmental education services and actual practices.

Furthermore, companies cooperate with the environmentally-labeled products to promote green consumption lead the green trend of society. Another example is the promotion of Cherish Food from the perspective of supply chain. They connect various sectors between upstream and downstream (e.g., food generation, production, distribution, and consumption), encourage businessowners to respond to Cherish Food and become Cherish Food Promotion Seed Stores, shape the Food Save consumption model, and reduce food waste from the source.

4. (4) Government Agencies

• A. Use Policies to Establish Environmental Education Promotion Guidelines
• In order to implement environmental education policies, Taiwan has successively formulated, in accordance with the TEEA, a national-level National Environmental Education Guidelines and a National Environmental Education Action Plan with government agencies in charge, as the guidelines for various ministries. Government agencies and schools are encouraged to promote their business under the principle of environmental sustainability, and accelerate the popularization of environmental education through inter-ministerial communication, coordination, and resource integration. All 22 cities and counties in Taiwan have established environmental education action plans as the basis for promotion.
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• Moreover, specific methods are implemented to expand influence, including establishing laws and regulations, organizing training and use of human resources, stabilizing financial resources, getting professional certification, and providing educational resources and information, penalties, assessments and evaluations, and guidance and rewards.
• B. Cultivate Talents Through the Three Major Certifications of Environmental Education (Personnel, Institution, and Facilities)
• Environmental Education Certification provides multi-channel training for practitioners, handles environmental education services, and practices environmental protection actions. Environmental educators are important executives who encourage the promotion of environmental education in Taiwan and achieve the vision of sustainable development. The development of professional competence and the quality of personnel are the keys to effective environmental education.
• Till the end of June 2021, the Environmental Education Certification jointly promoted by the EPA as well as various ministries and committees has currently certified 209 environmental education facilities, 26 environmental education institutions, and 11,298 environmental education personnel (including 6,257 people from the EPA and 5,041 people from the MOE).
• C. Establish a Database Link of Teaching Materials and Talents
• One of the priorities of Taiwan’s environmental education policy is upholding the spirit of talent cultivation, handling various training courses, compiling teaching materials, establishing a talent database, and setting subsidies and reward mechanisms to recruit outstanding talents from all walks of life to invest in environmental education. The Environmental Education Lifelong Learning Website provides multiple learning channels for environmental education and has 660,000 members. In 2020, the video section has accumulated 720,000 views.
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• D. Reward and Subsidies Mechanism
• The National Environmental Education Award is Taiwan’s first environmental education award at the national level. Government agencies, groups, communities, schools, private enterprises, and individuals are all welcome to participate in the competition and share the glory. The various subsidies programs of the Environmental Education Fund encourage people to actively implement environmental programs and activities to spread environmental protection knowledge and provide more relevant learning opportunities.  

The foundation of education comes from learning. On the road of environmental education, besides self-growth, we still need to continue to learn from others. Through the establishment of international cooperation and partnerships in environmental education, local action experience is integrated with international trends to enhance Taiwan’s global green soft power.

• A. Global Environmental Education Partnership (GEEP)
• Taiwan’s EPA and the US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) jointly promoted regional and global environmental education projects in 2014. After years of hard work, the Global Environmental Education Partnership Asia-Pacific Regional Center (GEEP APRC) was established in Taiwan in 2019, It is responsible for the cooperation and knowledge exchange of experts from governments, industry, academia, and non-governmental organizations in the Asia-Pacific region, spreading Taiwan’s experience to the Asia-Pacific region and the world.
• B. US-Taiwan Eco-Campus Partnership Program
• This is an ESD project jointly operated by the Taiwan EPA, US EPA, and the US National Wildlife Federation (NWF). Since the promotion in 2014, more than 300 schools in Taiwan have joined, with 177 schools certified with the Bronze Awards, 116 schools certified with the Silver Awards, and 13 schools recognized by Green Flags which represent the highest honor of Eco-Schools. Teachers and students participating in the program have created opportunities for bilateral cooperation and expanded their international horizons through exchange and collaboration.
• C. Taiwan-Danmark Environmental Care Design Competition
• The Index Award is an international design award set up by the Danish non-profit organization The Index Project. Its main purpose is to call on people from all over the world to propose design works that improve their lives. It has the reputation of "Nobel Prize in the Global Design Circle". Taiwan has held an exhibition of the Taiwan-Denmark Environmental Education Cooperation and Environmental Design Competition every two years since 103. This is a reference to Danish environmental education combining design, innovation and industrialization, and is geared towards designing to respond to environmental sustainability issues such as global climate change. .Taiwan has also held an "Environmental Care Design Competition" every two years since 103. It has been processed for the 4th edition. The number of entries has increased from 513 in the 1st edition to 919 in the 4th edition (2021). , Which shows that more designers have integrated the concept of environmental education into products through design to create products that are more friendly to the environment.
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3. 3、Future Prospects
4. Looking back at the results of the ten-year promotion of the TEEA, under the government’s policies and the joint efforts of non-governmental forces, the environmental literacy of Taiwanese citizens have gradually improved and various environmental actions were implemented to achieve a more environmentally friendly citizen participation. In the next ten years, the TEEA will actively strive towards the following seven aspects:
   1. (1) Take root in preschool and school environmental education
   2. Establish a correct concept of environmental protection for children, children, adolescents and college students, so that they will turn environmental protection into action when they grow up, and improve the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values ​​of the whole people to protect the environment.
   3. (2) Improve the energy of environmental education places and promote Ecotourism
   4. Continue to prioritize the use of environmentally friendly construction and environmental education facilities for learning. The Environmental Protection Agency will integrate regional environmental education sites, combined with national sightseeing and tourism, and connect neighboring fields with points, lines and planes to form green tourism routes and encourage local governments to handle green tourism experiences And learning activities.
   5. (3) Connect with businesses, communities, communities and the whole people
   6. Continue to strengthen and combine environmental education partnerships between enterprises, civil organizations, public figures and communities, and combine international environmental festivals to enhance the promotion effect, so as to reach enterprises, communities, communities and all citizens to participate in environmental education.
   7. (4) Environmental protection and green life for the whole people
   8. From the six major aspects of "travel", "food", "consumption", "home", "energy" and "office", continue to promote physical environmental protection activities at all levels of life, comprehensively improve attitudes and habits, and promote the development of green industries and the effective use of resources .
   9. (5) Links to environmental issues and cooperation with agencies
   10. Promote green consumption, circular economy, nature conservation, marine education, cultural preservation, food wise action, sustainable development, etc. according to the business of each ministry and assembly, and strengthen the cultivation of environmental skills, attitudes and values ​​in all aspects.
   11. (6) Use of Emerging Media
   12. Combining with emerging media to reach more people and expand the effectiveness of publicity, at the same time combined with various ministries' Facebook and LINE platforms, through fan group cross-marketing, the propaganda department's clubs are responsible for environmental issues and knowledge.
   13. (7) International environmentally friendly promotion and cooperation network
   14. Continue to handle environmental education research and international information collection cooperation, actively participate in global and Asia-Pacific environmental education activities and conferences, to understand international environmental education trends, as a domestic policy reference, and promote China's global and Asia-Pacific environmental education cooperation network.
5. 4、Conclusion
6. The TEEA was officially implemented on June 5 2011. It is hoped that through laws and regulations, people will care and understand the environment closely related to everyday life, so as to respect and protect the lives, culture, and industry. The promotion also hopes to bring the multiple forces of the citizens and the environmental learning communities together to maintain environmental and ecological balance as the foundation of sustainable development. As of 2021, the TEEA has been promoted for ten years. Looking back at past achievements, we will continue to echo the UN SDGs and make great strides towards the next ten years. We hope that the Taiwan’s environmental education promotion experience can serve as a reference to other countries and we will work with the international community to act for a sustainable world.